16-05-2015

The New York Times speaks about us

The legendary publication from Manhattan covers Identità Expo and quotes Paolo Marchi

Even the prestigious New York Times, one of the mo

Even the prestigious New York Times, one of the most influential and famous publications in the world, covers Identità Expo, the format created by Identità Golose for the 2015 World Fair. They mention a lesson by Andrea Ribaldone, our executive chef, and quote founder and curator Paolo Marchi

Even The New York Times, the legendary publication from Manhattan, speaks about Identità Expo, Identità Golose’s restaurant, about its activity at Expo and its founder Paolo Marchi. They do so in an article titled How to understand Italy, signed by Beppe Severgnini, columnist for Corriere della Sera.

The journalist from Crema used Expo as a pretext to speak about Italian cuisine and thus about Italians tout court. Severgnini thus wonders rhetorically “You mean the Italians actually did it, actually pulled off a world’s fair? Despite the scandals, delays, cost overruns and squabbling? Of course we did it. No one is better than us at turning a crisis into a party”.

The online version of Beppe Severgnini's article

The online version of Beppe Severgnini's article

And no one – says the columnist – knows better than us how to cover the theme of Expo, “Feeding the planet”. He sums up the reasons in five words starting with an “f”: “family, feuds, fantasy, feelings and fashion”.

Family, because “For centuries, the home has been a gastronomic workshop that combines simplicity with robust good sense”. Feuds, instead, refer to the rivalries according to which “every town and village in Italy believes itself to be unrivalled for one food product, recipe or preparation”. This historic separation has also some very positive outcomes: constant competition has generated a “spectacular variety” that has Slow Food as its point of reference.

Beppe Severgnini, in the centre, dining at Identità Expo the other night. Paolo Marchi, on the left, at the same table

Beppe Severgnini, in the centre, dining at Identità Expo the other night. Paolo Marchi, on the left, at the same table

Fashion is soon explained: Italian cuisine is fashionable and its cooking style “has influenced food trends worldwide”. Then there’s... Identità Golose. Severgnini quotes Paolo Marchi as “one of our finest food critics”, when he explains how the word “fantasy” is crucial to explain the relationship between Italians and food: “Italians may not be history’s greatest inventors of foodstuffs, but we are unbeatable adapters”.

And he explains this concept with Marchi’s very words: “The Chinese have created 40,000 recipes and we have only a 20th of that. They invented spaghetti, for one thing. But the idea of not overcooking it — the al dente concept — is Italian. The world likes to chew”. The same applies for tomatoes and coffee: they come from afar but were made great in our Peninsula.

Finally, he speaks about Feelings. Food is emotion and Italians are its best interpreters. Says Severgnini: “A few days ago, at Identità, a restaurant created just for the Expo, the chef Andrea Ribaldone waxed rapturously about how he made a saffron risotto with bone marrow. It was more like he was sharing a secret than giving a lecture. Diners listened ecstatically”.

This is not the first time a major international publication speaks about Identità Golose, about Marchi and the merits of a work lasting eleven years now and which Marchi curates himself together with Claudio Ceroni, patron of Magenta Bureau. “Paulo [with a "u"] Marchi has done more for his country, over the last few years, than any cook”, wrote Nicholas Lander on the Financial Times on 9th February 2008. One year earlier Time had described Identità as "the most important event for avantgarde cuisine". In the same months, arrived the praise of the Los Angeles Times, in a piece you can read here, signed by Regina Schrambling.


Identità Expo

Activities, ideas and protagonists in Identità Golose's location inside the 2015 World Fair

by

Carlo Passera

journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief

Author's articles list